Electric railway



4 SheetsSheet 2.

(No Model.)

' A. GASAZZA. ELECTRIC RAILWAY.

Patented Feb. 4, 1896.-

WITNESSES.

A 7TOHNE Y8.

ANDREW B.GRANAM. PHUi'OUTNO. WASHINGTUNJ C 4 Sheets-Sheet 3.

(No Model!) v A. OASAZZA.

ELECTRIC RAILWAY. 'No. 553,952. Patented Feb. 4, 1896.

ATTORNEYS.

(N0 Model.) 4 shegts,-sheet 41 A. GASAZZA. ELECTRIC RAILWAY.

No. 553,952. I Patented P55. 4, 189 6.

A 7'TOBNE NlTED STATES.

YATENT O FICE.

AUGOST CASAZZA, OF I'IOBOKEN, NEXV JERSEY.

ELECTRIC RAILWAY.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 553,952, dated February4, 1896.

Application filed December 13, 1894. Serial No. 531,691. (No model.)

To all whom, it may concern.-

Be it known that I, AUGOST CASAZZA, of I'Ioboken, in the county ofHudson and State of New Jersey, have invented a new and ImprovedElectric Railway, of which the following is a full, clear, and exactdescription.

My invention relates to improvements in conduit electric railways; andthe object of my invention is to produce a simple and efficient electricrailway of this class, which has the line-wire or trolley-wire made upof a series of independent insulated sections, which has an automaticbut easily controlled switch to switch several line-sections in and outof the circuit as the car passes along the track, so that under normalconditions the line-wire is dead and harmless, which has the switchesoperated by an independent local circuit, preferably energized by astoragebattery on the car, so that the switches may be operated withoutreference to the linecircuit, and which has the devices comprising itconstructed and arranged in such a way that they are sure to operate andare durable and little likely to get out of repair.

To these ends my invention consists of an electric railway, theconstruction and arrangement of which will be hereinafter described andclaimed.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, forminga part ofthis specification, in which similar letters and figures of referenceindicate corresponding parts in all the views.

Figure 1 is a broken longitudinal section of a portion of the electricrailway, showing a car with its motor in connection with the line andillustrating also a diagram of the circuit. Fig. 2 is a broken sectionalplan on the line 2 2 of Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a longitudinal section similarto Fig. 1, but illustrating a slightly-modified arrangem ent of theswitch-' circuits. Fig. 4 is a broken sectional plan on the line 4 4 ofFig. 3. Fig. 5 is a section .similar to Figs. 1 and 3, but illustratinganother modification of the railway in which the adjacent sections ofthe line are used, one for the supply-wire and the next for thereturn-wire. Fig. 6 is a broken sectional plan on the line 6 6 of Fig.5.Fig. 7 is a broken side elevation, partly in section on the line 7 7 ofFig. 8, of the trolley shown in Fig. 1 and means for closing theswitch-circuit. Fig. 8 is a front elevation, partly in cross-section, ofthe trolley shown in Fig. 7. Fig. 9 is a detail side elevation of themodified form of trolley and its connections shown in Figs. 3 and 4.Fig. 10 is a cross-section on the line 10 10 of Fig. 9, and Fig. 11 is aplan view of the main oar-switch and illustrates in a general way how aswitch may be connected for controlling the circuits of the switchesalong the line.

The railway is provided with the usual conduit 10, which may be of anycustomary kind, and which has the top slot 11 between the track-railsfor the passage of the trolley-arm. Extending longitudinally through theconduit is the line-wire made up of sections A, which may be of. anydesired length, and which are insulated from each other, being supportedon the supports or hangers 12. The trolleywheel 13, which also may be ofany usual kind, runs on the line-wire, and the trolley-arm 14 extendsthrough the slot and connects with the truck-frame 15 which carries themotor 16, and the current from the line-wire passes through the trolley,the frame 15, the wire a, the motor 16, the wire a, one of thecar-wheels 17, a track-rail 18, and grounds through the wires 19, 20,and 21. The wire a, as shown in Fig. 1, is connected to the axle ofwheel 17, and said axle and the wheels thereon are insulated from theframe 15. The wires are placed parallel with each other and areconnected together at suitable intervals by the wires 21, and one of thewires 20 connects at frequent intervals with the rail 18 by the wires19. This arrangement insures a quick grounding of the current.

Near the meeting ends of each pair of sections A of the line-wire is atilting bell-crank armature 22, which forms a part of the switchcontrolling the current through these sections, and the bell-crank ispulled in one direotion so as to close the circuit through theline-sections, as presently described, by magnets 23, which togetherwith the bell-crank are mounted on a support 24, and the bellcrank istilted in the opposite direction, so as to open the circuit, bya weight25, although an equivalent spring may be used if preferred.

Each bell-crank 22 connects by a wire Z) with for, these sections beingrun parallel with the a feed-wire B, which extends longitudinallythrough the conduit 10, and when the bellcrank is actuated by itsmagnets 23 it rises against a contact 26, which is supported in 1 itspath, and the contact 26 connects by a wire I) with the adjacentline-section A.

The current through the magnets 23 is supplied from a battery C on thecar, which is preferably a storage-battery, through a wire 0, whichleads to the contact-plates 27, which are held in recesses 28 (see Figs.7 and 8) in the trolley-arm 11, these plates being pressed outward bysprings 29 so as to contact through the conducting-strips 30, which arearranged along one side of the slot 11, being made up in sectionscorresponding in length to the sections A of the line-wire, and thestrips 30 are insulated from each other and from the conduit. The twocontact-plates 27 are used so that when the trolley'arm 1; is oppositethe meeting ends of two of the strips 30 the plates will straddle theinsulation, one being in contact with one strip 30 and the other withthe next, so that a current is sure to pass. From the strips 30 thecurrent is conducted to the magnets by wires 0 and from the magnets 23to the ground by wires 0 The other ter- 3 minal of the battery 0 hasalso a ground connection by means of the contact-wheel 31, which runs onone of the track-rails and is journaled on a suitable arm 32 on the car,the wire 0 leading from the wheel 31 to the switch 33 of the motor onthe car, and from here the current passes by a wire 0 back to thebattery C.

The switch 33 is of the common kind,having an operating-handle 34, andon the switchbarrel is a supplemental switch 35, which is not shown indetail because it may be of any usual kind, and this supplemental switchmay be arranged to control the circuit of the battery 0.

It will be seen that when the trolley-wheel 13 is on a certain sectionof the line the current from the storage-battery C will pass through thewire 0, the contact-plates 27, the conducting-strip 30, the wire 0, themagnets 23, the wire 0 to the ground, the contactwheel 31, the wire 0the switch 33 and the wire 0 back to the battery. The closing of thiscircuit causes the magnets 23 to tilt the E bell-crank armature 22 andbring the armature against the contact 26, thus closing the circuitthrough the motor 16. as already described. \Vhen the trolley 13 passesto the next section A of the line-wire, the contactplates 27 will passoff the conducting-strip 30 to the next, and so the magnets 23 arede-energized and the weight brings back the bellcrank 22 to its normalposition, thus breaking the line-circuit.

In Figs. 3 and I have shown a slightlymodiiied form of the invention, inwhich the conducting-strips are dispensed with and a series ofwire-sections A substituted thereline-sections A, as Fig. 4t clearlyshows. The trolley-arm it in this case is provided with an extratrolleywheel 13, which is insulated from the trolley-wheel13 and runs onthe sections A. The wire-sections A are connected with the magnets 23 bywires 0' precisely as the conducting-strips 30 are connected, and thetrolley-wheels 13 connect with the storage-battery by means of the wire0, (see Figs. 3 and 10,) this wire connecting with the trolley-arm 16 bya suitable binding-post 36, and the wire a carrying the main current tothe motor connects with the opposite side of the arm by a binding-post37, (see Figv 10,) and the two halves of the trolley-arm are insulatedfrom each other, as shown in the same figure.

It will be seen that as the trolley runs along the line the switchescomprising the magnets 23 and bell-cranks 22 will be operated preciselyas already described, except that the current will pass through thetrolley-arm. 14c and trolley-wheel 13 instead of through theconducting-strips 30 and plates 27.

In Figs. 5 and 6 I have shown another modification of railway in whichthe same general principle is carried out, but the line-sections A areused alternately as supply and return wires. As here illustrated theswitches for the sections A are precisely as shown in Figs. 1 and 2,except that the bell-crank 22 carries two contacts 38 and 39, one ofwhich connects by a wire I) with the supply-wire B, while the otherconnects by a wire (I with a ground-wire D. "When the armaturebell-crank is raised to close the circuit through a section A, thesecontacts 38 and 39 strike corresponding contacts -10 and l-l, the formerof which connects with a section A by the wire I), while the latterconnects by a wire a with the next section A. In connection with thisarrangement two trolleys 13 and arms 14 are used, these 0011- necting bywires a and a with the motor 16. When the circuit is closed through themagnets 23 to raise the armature 22, so as to bring the contacts 38 and39 against the contacts 40 and 11, the current passes from thesupp1ywire B through the wire I), the contacts 38 and 10, the wire I), aline-section A, one of the trolley-wheels 13, the wire a, the motor 16,the wire a, the second trolley-wheel13, the second line-section A, thewire 6, the contacts 11 and 39, the wire (I and the wire D to theground.

The car, in connection with the arrangement shown in Figs. 5 and 6, hasstorage-batteries C. contact-wheels 31, and the connections alreadydescribed at each end of the car, so that the car may be run in eitherdirection.

From the foregoing description it will be seen that the line-wire iscompletely cut out except when the car is in contact with it, and thatby means of the local circuit 011 the car, in connection with theseveral switches along the line, the current is sure to be switched intothe line as required, and thus is used without loss and in safety.

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secureby Letters Patent- 1. In an electric railway, the combination of agenerator, a feed-wire, a conduit having a slotted top, a line-wirecomposed of sections having their ends insulated and mounted on raisedsupports in the conduit, switch devices adapted when actuated to placethe feed-wire in circuit with the sections of the line-wire, said switchdevices each comprising a magnet and its armature, a car having amotorcircuit including a trolley-arm having a trolley adapted totraverse the sections of the line-wire, a conductor at the side of theconduit-slot extending parallel to the line-wire and composed ofcorresponding sections, each section of said conductor being connectedto one switch device and a local circuit carried on the car andincluding spring-pressed plates adapted to traverse the sections of thecon- 3. The combination, of the conduit having 7 a conducting-strip atthe slot, the switch in the conduit, the electrical connections betweenthe conducting-strip and switch, the trolley-arm, the spring-pressedplates held in the trolley-arm and against the strip, and electricalconnections with the plates, substantially as described.

AUGOST CASAZZA.

Witnesses:

WARREN B. HUTOHINSON, O. SED'GWICK.

